Sloes and rowan berries: fruits that frost and cooking make edible
Sloes and rowan berries still hang on hedges and trees in late autumn, when other fruits are long gone. Raw, both are hardly edible: sloes make your mouth pucker, and raw rowan berries can give you a stomach ache. Frost, cooking and straining turn them into purée, juice and jelly. Here you learn to recognise both reliably, to rule out the poisonous black berries in hedges, to keep the sloe stones whole and to cook rowan berries properly.
- Picking 30 minutes; cooking and straining 45–60 minutes
Explicado de forma sencilla
Sloes are small blue-black fruits on a shrub with sharp thorns. Rowan berries are small orange-red berries in large clusters on a tree. Both still hang in late autumn, when there are hardly any other fruits left.
Raw, neither tastes good: sloes make your mouth completely dry and furry, and raw rowan berries can give you a stomach ache. After the first frost and above all after cooking they get better. Then you make purée or juice from them.
Poisonous black berries also grow in hedges. A real sloe has only one single large stone inside and a pale blue bloom outside that you can wipe off. You never bite the stone.
Cómo funciona
Sloes contain a lot of tannins. They bind with proteins in saliva and the mouth feels dry and puckered. Frost makes ice crystals grow in the cells, the cell walls tear, and the fruit becomes softer and tastes milder. The freezer has the same effect.
Rowan berries contain parasorbic acid. It irritates the stomach if you eat many raw berries. Cooking converts it into sorbic acid – a substance that is even used as a preservative today and is well tolerated.
Sloe stones contain amygdalin, like cherry, plum and apricot stones. Only when a stone is broken can hydrogen cyanide form from it. Whole stones that you sieve out after cooking are no problem.
Lo que de verdad importa
With black fruits a look inside decides. If in doubt, cut a fruit open: one single large stone means sloe; several small seeds mean buckthorn, alder buckthorn or privet – all poisonous. Add to that the thorns, the waxy bloom and the way the fruits sit on the twig.
You recognise rowan by the tree: pinnate leaves with many narrow, toothed leaflets and large, flat clusters of orange-red berries. Soak overnight, pour away the water, then cook – that makes them milder.
Mix the tart fruits with something sweet. Apples, rose hips, sugar or honey turn sour purée into something you like to spoon up.
Seguridad: a qué debes prestar atención
Privet, buckthorn and alder buckthorn can cause vomiting, diarrhoea and stomach cramps. Anyone who gets such symptoms after eating black hedge fruits calls the poison line and keeps the remains.
Raw rowan berries in larger amounts cause stomach ache and nausea. Children love the bright berries – explain to them that you only eat them cooked.
Never crush, bite or purée sloe stones. For purée, only cook the fruits soft and then press them through a sieve.
Paso a paso
Collect after the first frost
Sloes and rowan berries are ripe from October, but taste clearly milder after the first frost. If it has not frozen yet, you can put the fruits in the freezer for a few days – that has a similar effect. Collect in hedges, on woodland edges and field margins away from roads.
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Collect after the first frost
Sloes and rowan berries are ripe from October, but taste clearly milder after the first frost. If it has not frozen yet, you can put the fruits in the freezer for a few days – that has a similar effect. Collect in hedges, on woodland edges and field margins away from roads.
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Recognise the sloe
The sloe is a dense, spiky shrub with long, hard thorns on its twigs. The fruits are round, about the size of a fat pea to a small cherry, blue-black and covered with a pale blue waxy bloom that can be wiped off. They sit singly or in pairs on short stalks directly on the twig. Inside, the flesh is greenish with one single large stone.
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Rule out poisonous black berries
If in doubt, cut a fruit open. Privet has glossy black berries in panicles and no thorns. Buckthorn has twigs that end in thorns and berries with several small seeds. Alder buckthorn has no thorns and berries with several seeds, often green, red and black at the same time. Only a fruit with a waxy bloom and one large stone is a sloe.
Several small seeds = not a sloe.
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Process sloes
Wash the sloes, put them in the pot with a little water and boil them for about 15 to 20 minutes until they fall apart. Do not crush them with a masher, so the stones stay whole. Press the purée through a sieve or let the juice drip through a cloth. With sugar or sweeter fruit it becomes purée or juice.
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Recognise the rowan
The rowan is a slender tree with pinnate leaves of about 9 to 15 narrow, toothed leaflets. In autumn large, flat clusters of many small orange-red berries hang from the branches. Each berry has a small dark star on top, the remains of the flower.
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Never eat rowan berries raw in quantity
Raw rowan berries taste bitter and in larger amounts can cause nausea, vomiting and stomach ache. The culprit is parasorbic acid. One or two raw berries are not dangerous, but you should never eat your fill of them raw. Keep children from snacking on them raw.
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Cook rowan berries
Pick the berries off the stalks, wash them and soak them in water overnight, which softens the bitterness. Pour the water away. Then boil them in fresh water for 15 to 20 minutes, strain and use the purée or juice. Cooking converts the parasorbic acid.
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Use in small amounts and mixed
Sloe and rowan purée taste strongly sour and tart. It is best to mix them with sweeter fruit such as apples or rose hips, or with sugar or honey. A few spoonfuls make porridge, tea or flatbread fresher. Cooked and filled hot into clean jars they keep longer.
Errores frecuentes
- Picking black hedge berries without checking
- Puréeing sloes with their stones
- Eating rowan berries raw in quantity
- Not straining
- Collecting along roads
Resumen rápido
Materiales
Guantes de trabajo resistentes
Sloes have hard thorns
Si manipulas lodo de inundación o productos químicos, usa además guantes impermeables.
Recipiente rígido de recolección (caja, cesta o taza)
Una especie por recipiente: nunca mezcles nada desconocido
Olla metálica (acero inoxidable, aluminio, titanio)
Caliente: riesgo de quemaduras.
Colador fino o paño denso para colar
For straining out stones and skins
Para los escaramujos tiene que ser lo bastante fino para retener los pelillos diminutos: un escurridor de malla gruesa no basta
Adecuado para
- October to December, after the first frost
- Sour flavour and vitamins in late autumn
- Purée, juice and jelly as stores
No adecuado para
- Raw rowan berries in larger amounts
- Black berries in clusters or with several small seeds
- Crushed or chewed sloe stones
Requisitos previos
- Being able to tell sloe, privet, buckthorn and alder buckthorn apart
- Recognising rowan by its pinnate leaf and fruit cluster
- Pot, fire and sieve
Seguridad
- Like cherry and plum stones, sloe stones contain substances that form hydrogen cyanide when bitten or crushed. Keep the stones whole, do not purée them and strain them out after cooking.
- Raw rowan berries contain parasorbic acid, which can cause nausea, vomiting and stomach ache. Cooking converts it. So always cook rowan berries and only eat them in small amounts, ideally with other fruit.
- Trees and shrubs belong to someone. What grows or falls on private land, in gardens and orchards belongs to the owner – ask first. Collecting is often banned in protected areas.
Cómo funciona
Both fruits protect themselves with substances that are unpleasant raw: sloes with tannins that make the mouth pucker, rowan berries with parasorbic acid and bitter substances. Frost loosens the cells and makes sloes milder. Cooking converts the rowan's parasorbic acid and turns both fruits into a purée or juice from which stones and skins can be strained out.
Ventajas
- Available late in the year
- Lots of acidity and flavour
- Keeps well once cooked
- Common in hedges and on woodland edges
Desventajas
- Hardly edible raw
- Poisonous black look-alikes in hedges
- Laborious processing
- Pocas calorías sin azúcar
Conocimiento en profundidad
Fundamentos técnicos
Sloes and rowan berries used to be part of the winter stores in the countryside: purée, juice and jelly brought acidity and colour to a monotonous diet. The rowan is called Vogelbeere (bird berry) in German because birds love its fruit – birds tolerate it raw.
That rowan berries are "poisonous" is exaggerated: cooked they are edible; raw they cause complaints in larger amounts. More dangerous in hedges is confusing black fruits. Anyone who recognises every sloe by its single large stone is on the safe side.
Variantes
- Frost from the freezer
- Freeze sloes picked early for a few days. Afterwards they are milder and release more juice when cooked.
- With apples
- Cook sloe or rowan juice together with apples into a purée. The apple brings sweetness, the wild fruits colour and acidity.
Errores frecuentes
- Picking black hedge berries without checking
- Puréeing sloes with their stones
- Eating rowan berries raw in quantity
- Not straining
- Collecting along roads
Límites y riesgos
- No es una clave de identificación completa
- Vale para Europa central
- Sin promesas de curación
Alternativas de materiales
Deducido de las propiedades de los materiales: un sustituto debe tener todas las propiedades relevantes. Ten en cuenta las indicaciones sobre el sustituto.
- Recipiente rígido de recolección (caja, cesta o taza)
- Olla metálica (acero inoxidable, aluminio, titanio) (Caliente: riesgo de quemaduras.), Botella de acero inoxidable de pared simple (Calienta solo botellas de pared simple, sin pintura ni plástico; quita la tapa antes de calentarla.), Botella térmica de doble pared (Nunca la calientes directamente.), botella de PET (transparente, máx. 2 litros) (No lo calientes ni lo pongas al fuego.), Bidón de agua apto para alimentos (Usa solo recipientes que nunca hayan contenido productos químicos ni combustible.), Recipiente de almacenaje hermético apto para alimentos (Llénalo solo cuando esté limpio y completamente seco; nunca uses recipientes que hayan contenido productos químicos.), Bidón plegable o bolsa para agua (Protégelo de objetos punzantes.), Jarra medidora, Bolsa de agua apta para uso alimentario (Úsalo solo para agua potable, nunca para productos químicos ni combustible.), Frasco o tinaja de fermentación (Usa solo recipientes aptos para alimentos, de vidrio, de gres con esmalte apto para alimentos o de plástico alimentario. No uses recipientes de metal para alimentos ácidos.), Bolsas de alimentos reutilizables con cierre (Usa solo bolsas aptas para alimentos; no las uses con agua hirviendo salvo que el fabricante lo permita expresamente.), Bolsa o cesta de recolección que deje pasar el aire (Recolectar cada especie por separado para que no se mezcle nada desconocido)
- Olla metálica (acero inoxidable, aluminio, titanio)
- Botella de acero inoxidable de pared simple (Calienta solo botellas de pared simple, sin pintura ni plástico; quita la tapa antes de calentarla.)
Los resultados proceden exclusivamente de entradas estructuradas. No se genera ninguna instrucción improvisada.
Fuentes (5)
- Bundesinstitut für Risikobewertung (BfR) (2017): Risiko Pflanze – Einschätzung und Hinweise · Privet, buckthorn and alder buckthorn as poisonous shrubs with black fruits; raw rowan berries not tolerated in larger amounts
- Bundesinstitut für Risikobewertung (BfR): Giftpflanzen: Wie kann man sich schützen und was ist bei einer Vergiftung zu tun? (Fragen und Antworten) · Confusion of edible with poisonous wild fruits; what to do in case of poisoning
- Ray Mears und Gordon Hillman, Hodder & Stoughton (2007): Wild Food · Sloes and rowan berries as wild fruits that become palatable only after frost or cooking
- Headquarters, Department of the Army (USA) (2002): FM 3-05.70 Survival · Stone fruit kernels contain cyanide-forming substances; do not chew them
- Gesundheitsportal Österreich (gesundheit.gv.at), Bundesministerium für Soziales, Gesundheit, Pflege und Konsumentenschutz: Vergiftungsinformationszentrale (VIZ) · Centro de información toxicológica de Austria (VIZ), disponible las 24 horas; en caso de peligro agudo, 112 o 144